


Life Goes on.

by cestbelle



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 16:37:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7515427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cestbelle/pseuds/cestbelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they moved to King's Landing, Sansa knew everything would be alright in the end. Especially because Jon was always there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Goes on.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: not my creations, etc
> 
> Thanks Laura for proof-reading this to me.  
> Any mistakes are because english isn't my first language, and I apologise.
> 
> I know some of the legal stuff are not necessarily going to work in real life, but for the sake of the story, Modern Westeros's law is its own thing.
> 
> I hope it doesn't take your enjoyment from it.

Sansa Stark never really thought she’d be working as a waitress in a bar. Not with her privileged upbringing and all those nice marriage prospects that seemed to overflow her life from an early age until that day she was 15 and everything changed within the year.

After her father died her mother had trusted on Uncle Petyr to help with their hotel business, instead of the board Eddard had asked for. No, Petyr was family and she could only trust him. They had all tried to talk her out of it, but Uncle Petyr was Aunt Lysa’s husband and Aunt Lysa, insisted on being always besides Catelyn, talking about how innocent and ignorant of the world all of Catelyn’s children were.

Back then Robb was 17 and he had spent every summer since he was 11 learning the trade with their dad, he probably knew more about it than Catelyn, but he was still in high school and Aunt Lysa’s arguments seemed to only highlight that. And with Sansa being 15, Arya being 14, Bran being 12 and Rickon 8, none of them could really reach their mother, who, in her grief was trusting the wrong people.

One day they made her sign the wrong papers and just like that Catelyn and her children found themselves with an eviction notice and nowhere to go. It was only Aunt Lyanna who had saved them.

Aunt Lyanna wasn’t, of course, their real Aunt, but she had been friends with Eddard since they were kids, and while everyone thought they were too close for comfort, Catelyn included, Ned and Lyanna always denied any romance between them, declaring themselves siblings. It did help that they each had ending up marrying different people. It wasn’t only Catelyn’s jealousy that ensured Ned and Lyanna drifted apart after Lyanna’s wedding, but Cat would never really complain when Lya and her new husband moved to King’s Landing.

However, when she found herself with no one else to trust in Winter Town, all their old friends turning their back on the silly widow who had lost her fortune to her shrew of a sister and her devious husband, Robb, who was close friends with Lya’s son, Jon, suggested them tried and contacted friends who weren’t so close, specifically mentioning Aunt Lyanna, whose husband was the head of a big company and wouldn’t hesitate to help Ned’s family.

Of course Catelyn decided trying Uncle Robert first, but Uncle Robert’s wife, Cersei, could only laugh at their misfortunes and refused to let her husband help. Uncle Robert apologised profusely but “you see, business here ain’t so great either, Cat. No one wants to buy boats during winter, with the sea this big a mess. Maybe when it’s spring.”.

But spring was years away, according to the forecasts.

She tried her brother Edmure too, but “no one really fishes in winter, Cat, we’re making do, but I can only offer to let you and the kids stay here for a short while, until we figure out how to get your things back. Uncle Brynden is a lawyer, he’ll help.”

They went to Riverrun first, then, but just as they arrived Great-Uncle Brynden delivered the bad news. The signatures weren’t forged and they couldn’t prove that Uncle Petyr and Aunt Lysa had cheated Catelyn into signing any papers, unless one of the two confessed.

That was when Robb touched upon Aunt Lyanna and Rhaegar again. In fact he had been in touch with them and Jon all the time, and they had figured a plan in which Targaryen Inc. would invest money and partner up with them to help Catelyn build a bakery in King’s Landing, and she’d pay them back with the profit, or whenever she could buy their part back. Catelyn didn’t have a lot of practical abilities, but she could bake and cook like a dream, and their children knew that better than anyone. They all supported the idea, getting tired of the uncertainty of their lives.

With Robb having already given up on going to college until they were settled and Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon in need to at least complete their education, Catelyn didn’t see herself having much of a choice. So they went to King’s Landing and met the Snow-Targaryens for the first time since father’s funeral.

Catelyn, who had been ready to find Lyanna mocking her and her stupidity, ended up finding a good friend on the fiery woman, who had sworn to help her get Winterfell back as well as get her and her kids back on their feet.

“I always told everyone, Ned was my brother and, as such, no matter our differences, you are my sister.”

Sansa watched her mother cry in the arms of the woman she had feared for so long, who had just proved herself a better sister than Catelyn’s own blood. As she watched that, from behind a door, Sansa knew, eventually, they’d all be alright, because now that Catelyn was back to being herself and they had fierce Aunt Lyanna with them, nothing else could go wrong.

The Snow-Targaryens had helped the Starks finding the best spot for their new bakery, a pretty medieval building, next to Aegon’s Hill, with an apartment upstairs big enough to fit all of them, even if a bit uncomfortably for their usual standards. Robb, Bran and Rickon would share a room, Arya and Sansa another and Catelyn would get the small suite.

They helped the younger kids find schools and they also offered Robb a job on Rhaegar’s family business, until next year, when they were all sure he would be able to get a scholarship for KLU and Jon deferred his own enrolment to work with his friend on his family business.

Meanwhile, Catelyn set up a bakery, enlisting the help of all of her children, whenever they had time off. Sansa loved to bake as much as her mother, so she didn’t complain too much, unlike Arya and Rickon. Bran didn’t complain either, but that was because he was the best at maths so he was only in charge of register. Every weekend, Robb would help too, as well as Jon, who seemed even more invested than his parents in making sure the Starks thrived in their new city.

He’d help Arya with homework, listen to Bran’s science experiments and take Rickon out to the park, whenever all the other kids were too busy to help with their younger brother. Sometimes he’d even help Sansa bake things, even if his help consisted mostly of getting her things she needed and keep her company while he studied something or another on his laptop. Sansa couldn’t help but developing a crush on the older boy who helped them so much and who was so tender with all of her family. She was pretty sure Arya was moon-eyed over him as well, but considering Jon had a girlfriend, she didn’t take her own crush too seriously and didn’t begrudge her sister’s.

And thrive the Starks did. As the bakery got more well-known, the kids made new friends: Arya’s friends were a bunch of misfits and Sansa was sure her sister’s crush on Jon had been replaced by a crush on a guy from Sansa’s year who had a bike, Gendry she thought he name was. Their neighbours’ kids, the Reeds, were Bran’s new friends, Jojen and Meera being as big geeks as Bran. Rickon’s friends were all the children from his school, and every other day some new 9 year old would show up demanding a free cookie her brother had promised. Sansa, herself had made friends with Mya Stone and Myranda Royce, and they seemed better friends than any of her old northern friends.

Life moved on for the Starks. Robb did get into KLU the next year, but he never really stopped working for Rhaegar or helping in the bakery, which allowed him to move out of their small apartment, when Sansa started her Senior year of High School.

Sansa didn’t have many good memories from that year, as that was the year she had the bad idea to date Joffrey Baratheon, the son of the man who had done nothing for his dead friend’s family, despite her entire family’s questioning that choice. “He’s not his father”, she’d say every time. And she was right, because he wasn’t his father, he was much, much worse.

It was Jon who had saved her from that. He had just gone by the bakery to check on them and, as he left, found a crying Sansa sitting on the sidewalk, a black bruise forming under one of her eyes and the shape of fingers. He sat down with her and held her as she told him everything that had happened. He helped her inside, called for Catelyn then called the police. He sat with her as she reported everything to the police, as she wouldn’t let go of his hand. He drove her and her mother to the hospital, to get her injuries checked. He calmed Robb down and prevented her brother from going through with all the threats he was making.

She remembered the two of them left the hospital together and didn’t come back until the next day, looking thoroughly satisfied with themselves. Hours later Sansa heard Joffrey had been expelled from his school and was on his way back to the Stormlands.

Jon also helped her find counsel and a self-defence class, which she insisted on taking along with Arya who, truth be told, couldn’t be more eager to learn how to hit people. Sansa, could only think of Jon and how amazing he was, the crush she had thought just a silly form of gratitude now seemed bigger.

He still had a girlfriend, however, and that had been the first time that fact had made her chest tighten.

All the while, Sansa didn’t really know how her mother and Aunt Lyanna’s plan to take back Winterfell was working. Not since that first night in King’s Landing, when Catelyn had cried in Lya’s arm. Truth be told, she didn’t really want to think about going back to the North. Not with all the frivolous treatment they had received. She was happier with their little apartment and their bakery, than she had ever been with their big house and clueless upbringing.

Sansa also got a scholarship to KLU by the end of the year, and she needed to get a new job. That was how she found herself working on The Wall, a nice bar, always filled with under-grads and grad students from KLU, owned by a sour man named Eddison Tollett, though everyone called him Dolorous Edd, as he apparently, couldn’t stand any of his costumers, or his workers.

It had been on The Wall that she had found out about Robb and Daenerys. She was Jon’s Aunt, the much younger sister of his father, and, being one year younger than Robb, had started going to college the same year he and Jon had. She laughed as her brother asked her not to tell anything to anyone yet, especially Jon. Because even if Dany was his Aunt he saw her much more like a younger sister, and Robb knew Jon would never cross that boundary with him before letting him know himself.

Sansa couldn’t help but blush, thinking how much she wanted Jon to cross that boundary with Robb, if it meant he saw her the way she saw him. Jon and still had his girlfriend, though, so she figured he would never.

She had been on The Wall for three years now, when Jon crossed the threshold looking absolutely glum. He sat in front of her and opened his mouth, giving up on whatever he was going to say and just hitting his head on the counter a few times.

She poured him his regular, whiskey on the rocks and placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

“You know, Edd is going to threaten to kick you out if you keep doing that.” He looked up and smiled at her, and she handed him his drink. “What happened?”

“I broke up with Ygritte.” He said, and although he seemed sad, he didn’t seem regretful.

“Oh? What happened? Why?” She felt her heart racing on her chest, even though it felt tacky to be so happy about Jon breaking up with his long-time girlfriend, he was clearly sad and it still didn’t mean she could make some sort of move on him.

“I just had to admit that I wasn’t in love with her anymore. There’s someone else…” He drank the whole glass at once.

“Oh.” That made her chest tighten again, if he already had someone else, her crush would still be a crush. “Did you… Cheat?”

“What? Gods, Sansa, no, I didn’t. I broke up with her before I could.” The signalled for her to fill his glass again. “I don’t even know if she likes me… And it’s not like I can ask her out now, anyway… It would be rude to all of the involved, even though Ygritte knows.”

“Of course, you don’t want everyone to ask the same question I just did.”

“That…” he took a long swig of his drink again. “Plus, there are other things I need to resolve, and I need to wrap my head around what I did to Ygritte first, because she deserves better than the guilt or, you know, me, right now.”

“Jon, there’s hardly better than you…” She let the words escape and covered her mouth, looking down. She missed the look he gave her and only raised her head to find him smiling a bit.

“Still, I’m not at my best, after basically stringing another girl along for a couple of years now. This girl I like deserves me at my best.” He smiled.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll find a way to woo her when you’re ready.”

“I’ll try.” He placed some bills on the counter. “Thanks for the talk, Sansa. I have to go now.

He smiled at her and left her there, feeling jealous of a girl she didn’t even know.

He 22nd birthday arrived a couple of months later and while she had a day off, she couldn’t get rid of The Wall, her friends and family (well, except for underage Bran and Rickon who stayed home with Catelyn – they had celebrated her birthday with a cake earlier) had insisted on going out for drinks, and as it was appropriate for college age kids, they ended up on her workplace. Edd sighed loudly when he saw her party arrive, and said something about not being able to get rid of her even on her days off, proceeding to give her a bottle of champagne to share with her table.

Everyone she cared about was there, Arya with Gendry, Robb with Dany, Mya, Randa, Harry, even Aunt Lyanna and Rhaegar stopped by to give her a gift. Only Jon was missing. Truth be told she hadn’t seen him much since the day he broke up with Ygritte. And so, even though she was happy with her siblings and friends there, she couldn’t hide her eagerness every time someone walked in, nor her disappointment.

When she stood up to get everyone another round, she found Robb besides her, looking at her impatiently.

“You’re killing me. Here…” He gave her a card. “I’m going to kill myself right now, but I told him I’d help with that as a… token of my… blessing.” She looked at the cart.

It was a standard Happy Birthday card with a cake and balloons, inside, in Jon’s neat handwriting only an address. Her mother’s bakery. She looked up at Robb.

“I wasn’t supposed to give it to you for another hour, but screw it, you’re killing me, looking at the door all… pitiful. Truth be told, I can’t stand his own pitiful looks either.”

Sansa hugged Robb and went back to their booth, quickly saying goodbye to everyone and picking up her bag, before calling a cab and giving the bakery’s address.

The lights were up when she got there, but the front of the store was empty. She could hear some noises from the kitchen though, some clanking and a quiet curse. She chuckled and walked there, being greeted by the sight of Jon covered in flour, as he finished putting something in the oven. When he straightened up he saw her.

“Robb was early.” He said sheepishly.

“He took pity on me, unlike you.” She walked slowly to him. “What are you making?”

“Lemon cakes.” He blushed.

“My favourites.”

“I know. Your mother has been teaching me, but I still can’t bake without making a mess. Sansa, I…”

“I know. I thought I didn’t but Robb gave me enough clues.” She stood in front of him.

She had been sure she knew what she was going to say. That she was going to open her heart and kiss him, but now, standing there in front of him, her heart was racing and apparently coming up her throat, the words she had rehearsed in her head for all those years seemingly lost.

“It’s you.” He said, seeming calmer now that she was the one looking flustered. “I had to say it out loud. It’s you… And I want to give it a try. Do you?”

“Yes.” he managed to say, though she didn’t nod, her eyes lost in his, as his eyes lit up when he smiled at her answer.

Without missing a bit, he moved one hand to her waist and the other to the back of her hair and pulled her face to his, until their lips were close enough to kiss. He didn’t for a while, though, allowing their breaths to mingle and she felt herself grateful for the support he was offering, because she could feel every inch of him and she was sure she would have melted.

When he finally allowed their lips to touch, it was fire burning all the way down to her toes, and she let out a small sigh, that got lost on her throat, as he pulled her even closer. She moved one hand to his shoulder, for support, the other tangling on his hair, doing something she wanted to do for years.

They kissed and kissed and kissed, until she could barely feel her lips, only his on hers, when the timer he had set up for the lemon cakes rang. He pulled back and smiled at her, lips swollen and red from their kissing, and she thought he had never looked sexier.

He winked at her as he went to retrieve the treats and she looked at her dress, finding several spots of flour on it as well, transferred from his shirt, she brushed what she could chuckling.

“Happy birthday, Sansa.” He said, holding a tray of lemon cakes, and after six years Sansa knew, for sure: everything was alright,


End file.
